Guest blog post by Dr. Rebecca Blank, Acting Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce

This morning, I joined economic development leaders from around the country to discuss ongoing efforts to create jobs and grow the U.S. economy. The Economic Development Forum was hosted by the U.S. Commerce Department’s SelectUSA initiative, in partnership with the White House Business Council and the International Economic Development Council (IEDC), the world’s largest professional organization of economic development practitioners.

The forum provided an opportunity to discuss the Obama administration’s efforts to support U.S. businesses and encourage companies to bring good jobs back to America, a trend called insourcing.

Both American and international firms are increasingly looking for opportunities to invest in the U.S. And businesses are not only choosing to bring jobs back, but they are also making decisions to expand here instead of shipping jobs overseas. These investments mean that more products will be made in America. That means more jobs and greater economic security for families across this nation.

The trip provided an opportunity for Commerce’s MBDA to help push forward on the Obama administration’s National Export Initiative (NEI) by fostering greater access to emerging markets in Brazil for minority business enterprises. Helping the administration achieve its NEI goal of doubling exports by the end of 2014 is a top priority for MBDA, because more exports mean more jobs. Through the NEI, MBDA is thinking strategically about the sectors and markets that give America’s minority businesses a comparative advantage globally. Brazil is one of those key markets.

During the trip, Director Hinson met with Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Relations and Brazilian business owners to discuss how MBDA can help U.S. minority-owned businesses enterprises (MBEs) improve their return on investment through strategic partnerships and gain access to the unprecedented opportunities in the United States and Brazil—the two largest economies in the Western Hemisphere.

Guest blog post by Lisa Wolfisch, chief of the Web and Social Media
Branch, Center for New Media and Promotions

It has been three months since the release of the Federal
Digital Strategy. At the Census Bureau, we were already undergoing a digital
transformation and have continued to align our efforts with the strategy. It is part of the overall
transformation effort at the Census Bureau, which now provides for Internet
responses to 60 different surveys.

At this three-month
anniversary, we are excited about our most recent innovations, which work
toward providing the public with access to our statistics “anywhere, anytime,
on any device,” a key goal of the Federal Digital Strategy.

As of today, real-time statistics about the U.S. economy are
available at your fingertips, straight from your iPhone, iPad, and Android
phone or tablet through our “America’s
Economy” mobile app. The app combines statistics from the Census Bureau,
Bureau of Economic Analysis and Bureau of Labor Statistics and includes 16 key
economic indicators. The app gives you the ability to view trends over the past
few years, add alerts to your calendars, and readily share the news on both
Facebook and Twitter

Not many 25-year-olds can boast that in their short lifetime they have helped thousands of organizations develop and maintain world-class operations, innovative management, efficient procedures, involved workforces and highly satisfied customers. But one certainly can: the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, the nation's premier means for organizations of all types to seek, achieve and maintain performance excellence.

On August 20, 1987, President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Improvement Act, establishing the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and its supporting program "to spark U.S. competitiveness and create a sustainable economy." Named after Malcolm Baldrige, the 26th Secretary of Commerce, the Baldrige Award and the Baldrige Program have guided organizations worldwide on their journeys toward continuous improvement and enhanced performance through the seven Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence—leadership; strategic planning; customer focus; measurement, analysis and knowledge management; workforce focus; operations focus; and results.

Travel and
tourism spending by international visitors is helping to boost the U.S.
economy. The U.S. Department of Commerce released data yesterday showing that
international visitors have spent an estimated $82.2 billion on U.S. travel and
tourism-related goods and services year to date, an increase of 11 percent when
compared to the same period last year. Many people do not know that this boosts
exports – when foreign citizens travel to America and buy goods and services
from American companies, that counts as a U.S. export. The new data indicate
that the first half of 2012 set a new record for U.S. travel and tourism
exports, and, if these trends continue, international visitors could end up
injecting close to $170 billion into the U.S. economy by year-end.

These increases help explain why the Obama administration is working hard to
make the United States the top destination for international travelers. The
U.S. Departments of Commerce and Interior are implementing the National Travel and
Tourism Strategy,
which they presented to the President
in May. The
National Strategy is a
blueprint for expanding travel to and within the U.S., setting out the goal of
attracting over 100 million international visitors annually by 2021, more than
a 50 percent increase over the number expected this year. These international
visitors would spend an estimated $250 billion per year, creating jobs and
spurring economic growth in communities across the country.

This
morning, Acting Secretary Rebecca Blank joined U.S. Representatives Chaka Fattah and Allyson
Schwartz on a tour of the job training facilities of Steamfitters Local 420 in
Philadelphia, where classes are held for
apprentices and journeyworkers to develop and improve their skills so they can
better serve clients and become qualified for a broader range of employment
opportunities.

The
rigorous training and education being offered at the facility has made a
difference in the lives of hundreds of people throughout the region. The
steamfitters local union 420 training center services the entire state and the
work being done by members helps keep the region's infrastructure running
smoothly, helping to make southeastern Pennsylvania an attractive place to do
business.

Today's visit was an opportunity for local business leaders,
workers and entrepreneurs to showcase all that they are doing to support
manufacturing, train a 21st century workforce, and help the American economy
recover from the worst recession since the Great Depression.

While there is still more work
to be done, our private sector has now had 29 straight months of job growth,
creating 4.5 million new jobs. Over the past two and one-half years, more than a half-million manufacturing jobs have been created in the U.S.— the strongest
job growth in that sector since the 1990s.

Pennsylvania
alone has gained over 10,000 new manufacturing jobs since January, 2010.
And these manufacturing jobs are good jobs that pay more than average and
provide greater benefits.

During
the visit, Acting Secretary Blank affirmed Commerce’s efforts to build a strong
environment for manufacturing and innovation in the U.S. For example, the
Obama administration recently announced the launch of a new public-private
institute for manufacturing innovation as part of its ongoing efforts to help
revitalize American manufacturing and encourage companies to invest in the
United States. This new partnership, the National Additive Manufacturing
Innovation Institute (NAMII), includes manufacturing firms, universities, community
colleges, and non-profit organizations from the Ohio-Pennsylvania-West Virginia "Tech Belt."

Though
progress has been made, more work remains. This is why the Obama administration continues to call on Congress to pass legislation to give our
companies a tax break if they move operations and jobs back. President
Obama has also called for helping state and local governments hire or retain teachers,
police, and firefighters; and putting construction workers by to work while
repairing crumbling American infrastructure. These proposals would create
a million new jobs, according to independent economists.

After
visiting the steamfitters' training facilities, Acting Secretary Blank traveled
to Allentown, Pennsylvania, to announce
a grant to help local small manufacturers lower operating costs and create
jobs. She was joined by Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, local business leaders,
and entrepreneurs to highlight Obama administration efforts to help local
companies and workers build things here so they can sell them everywhere.

By helping regions plan for their economic future, and by giving businesses access to the advanced tools they need to compete in the 21st century, we can make sure that the U.S. economy grows and creates the well-paying jobs that are key to our long-term prosperity. I got a first-hand look at such efforts today in Columbus, Ohio, when I had the opportunity to participate in a roundtable with local economic development leaders and visit the facilities of the Ohio Supercomputer Center.

One of the groups I met with was Columbus 2020, a regional public-private partnership that was created to leverage central Ohio’s research and academic institutions and its diverse industries, with the goal of better positioning the area to be the fastest growing economy in the country. It is doing that by working to retain and expand businesses already located in the region, attracting new businesses, leveraging the region’s research assets (such as its colleges and universities) to make it more attractive to entrepreneurs and startup businesses, and improving the region’s civic infrastructure.

Innovation is thriving in Maine, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the Department of Commerce, and the administration are working hard to further foster that environment, Under Secretary of Commerce and USPTO Director David Kappos told the Regional Chamber of Commerce of Penobscot Bay, Maine, on Tuesday.

From 2009 to 2010, the number of patent filings in the Portland, Maine, region nearly doubled, Kappos said. “We’re doing a lot to ensure that creative ideas and groundbreaking innovations, born right here in Maine, can flourish, and that the American innovation system is one that’s built to last.”

Barriers to innovation are being reduced, Kappos said, in part through the Startup America initiative, which includes investment funds, mentoring networks for entrepreneurs, tax breaks for small businesses, and the Department of Commerce’s i6 Green Challenge. That program rewards communities that develop and embrace cutting-edge ideas in green technology development and implementation.

Kappos also highlighted promoting insourcing of U.S. jobs through robust protections of our intellectual property abroad.

Acting U.S. Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank was in Minneapolis, MN, today to address attendees at the Opening General Session of the 78th Annual Conference and Expo hosted by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International.

In addition to thanking America’s first responders and public safety officials for keeping our country safe and secure, Acting Secretary Blank announced that she appointed twelve of the nation’s leading experts on public safety and wireless broadband communications to serve on the Board of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet).

By August, summertime will be winding down and vacations will be coming to an end, signaling that back-to-school time is near. It's a time that many children eagerly anticipate—catching up with old friends and making new ones, and settling into a new daily routine. Parents and children alike scan the newspapers and websites looking for sales to shop for a multitude of school supplies and the latest clothing fads and essentials. This edition of the U.S. Census Bureau's "Facts for Features" highlights the many statistics associated with the return to classrooms by our nation's students and teachers.

Interesting Fact: $74,000=Median earnings of full-time, year-round workers with an advanced
degree in 2009. Workers whose highest degree was a bachelor's had median
earnings of $56,000. Median earnings for full-time, year-round workers
with a high school diploma was $33,000, while workers with less than a
high school diploma had $25,000 median earnings. Back to School 2012-2013